CHGS co-sponsoring 2 films at the Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival

CHGS will co-sponsor The German Friend and 24 Days at the 2014 Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival on November first and second, both screenings will be at the Sabes Jewish Community Center.



The German Friend (Der Deutsche Freund)
Saturday, November 1
7:30 p.m.
Sabes Jewish Community Center
Tickets: $10 in advance; $14 same day
For more information or to purchase tickets click here.
The German Friend is the story of a German-Jewish girl and the son of an exiled Nazi form an enduring bond in Argentina. Through 30 years of personal and political postwar history, the film delivers an intimate examination of a guilt-ridden generation seeking to escape the legacy of their forbearers. Director Jeanine Meerapfel tells a story of a deep love in a time of political upheaval and historical change.
Directed by Jeanine Meerapfel; Argentina, Germany; 2012; German and Spanish with English subtitles; Adult, Nudity
24 Days (24 Jours: La Verite sur l'affaire Ilan Halimi)
November 2
4:00p.m.
Discussion to follow screening
Sabes Jewish Community Center
Tickets: $10 in advance; $14 same day

Sticking dangerously close to the real-life incident that inspired it, 24 Days offers up a white-knuckle dramatization of the nearly month-long kidnapping and torture of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi, whose traumatic ordeal at the hands of the "Gang of Barbarians" prompted a massive police manhunt and, eventually, a national outcry against anti-Semitism in France.
Directed by Alexandre Arcady; France; 2014; English Subtitles; Mature Audiences, Content; 110 min

PhD Candidate Department of French and Italian Corbin Treacy to Present at CHGS Workshop

Interdisciplinary Workshop for Graduate Students and Faculty Holocaust, Genocide and Mass Violence Studies
Friday, March 1
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences

Aesthetics and Aftermath: Algeria 1962-2012



Treacy's dissertation studies Algerian novels in French that respond to the political and social landscape of the post-independence period. Through their literary form, engagement with the political present, and utopian thinking, these works imagine counter-realities that interrupt the closed-circuit loop of violence and paralysis that have defined public life in Algeria in the aftermath of independence from France in 1962.

Building on the recent work of critics who combine materialist dialectics and post-colonial critique, He will show how these texts disrupt this permanence of aftermath through particular aesthetic moves, suggesting new ways of reading post-colonial literature beyond the polarities of politics and poetics.

If you are interested in participating in the workshop please contact Shannon Golden at golde118@umn.edu.

Updated schedule: CHGS 2013 HGMV Workshop 2-1-2013.pdf

Taner Akcam on France's vote on the Armenian Genocide

Armenian Genocide - Associate Professor Taner Akcam BBC (YouTube)

The transcript of Meïr Waintrater's lecture "You, Zionist!" Uses and Misuses of the Z-Word in Current Political Discourse is now available.

On March 29, 2011 Meïr Waintrater, editor-in-chief, L'Arche spoke at the St. Paul JCC about the systematic use of the words "Zionism" and "Zionist" where the words "Israel" and "Israelis" would be expected by various individuals who are hostile to Israel. Waintrater contrasted the use of the word "Zionist" in France, Great Britain and the United States, suggesting that while criticism of Israel should not be reduced to Jew-hatred, the "anti-Zionist" argument is often used to legitimize genuine anti-Semitism.

To read the transcript of that lecture please click on the PDF file below.

Uses and Misuses of the ZWord in Current Political Discourse.pdf

Meïr Waintrater was born in 1947 in Paris, and lived and worked as an economist and journalist at various institutions in Israel between 1973 and 1988. As editor-in-chief of L'Arche, he is a major commentator on questions of Jewish importance in Europe and France.

"You, Zionist!" Uses and Misuses of the Z-Word in Current Political Discourse

Meïr Waintrater, Editor-in-Chief, L'Arche
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
7:00 p.m.
St. Paul JCC
1375 St. Paul Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55116

For several years, within circles hostile to Israel, there has been a systematic use of the words "Zionism" and "Zionist" where the words "Israel" and "Israelis" would be expected. Meïr Waintrater, French journalist and editor-in-chief of the Jewish magazine L'Arche, will contrast the use of the word "Zionist" in France, Great Britain and the United States. Waintrater will suggest that while criticism of Israel should not be reduced to Jew-hatred, the "anti-Zionist" argument is often used to legitimize genuine anti-Semitism.

Meïr Waintrater was born in 1947 in Paris, and lived and worked as an economist and journalist at various institutions in Israel between 1973 and 1988. As editor-in-chief of L'Arche, he is a major commentator on questions of Jewish importance in Europe and France. France is home to one of the largest Jewish communities, while at the same time being home to one of the largest Muslim populations in Western Europe. Waintrater's perspective is crucial to understanding the tensions between the two communities, as well as the recent increase in French Jewish immigration to Israel which can be seen as a consequence of a new trend in anti-Semitism.

Co-sponsors: Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), St. Paul JCC,
University of Minnesota: Center for Jewish Studies, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Holocaust and Genocide News

Here are articles of interest from this weekend and today, Monday, November 15, 2010.

The Plot to Cheat Germany's Holocaust Survivors' Fund

French rail co. apologizes for collaborating with Nazis

Nazis Were Given 'Safe Haven' in U.S., Report Says

Bosnian police arrests suspect of genocide in Srebrenica

Hayk Demoyan calls Genocide negation pathology

Jewish teacher suspended in France for teaching 'too much' about Holocaust

A high school history teacher is accused of 'brainwashing' her students, says French news agency AFP.

By Haaretz Service

A French history teacher in Nancy, France, has been suspended for breaching the principle of secularism and neutrality after the French education ministry concluded that she was teaching "too much" about the Holocaust and spending too much time organizing trips for her students to Nazi death camps in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Catherine Pederzoli, 58, was investigated by officials at the education ministry, who released a report about the matter in July. The report accused the teacher of "lacking distance, neutrality and secularism" in teaching the Holocaust, and of manipulating her charges through a process of "brain-washing," according to the French news agency AFP.


In December, when the French Minister of Education Luc Chatel was visiting Pederzoli's high school, several of her students staged a protest over the decision to cut in half the number of students traveling to Poland on an upcoming trip, meant to acquaint the students with Nazi camps in the region. Pederzoli was accused of inciting the protest.
The principle of secularism and neutrality in France is meant to protect the separation of church and state. The ministry's report cites that in meeting with investigators, the teacher used the word "Holocaust" 14 times while using the more neutral term "massacre" only twice.
Pederzoli's lawyer, Christine Tadic, said Tuesday that Pederzoli had been organizing trips to concentration camps for the past 15 years, but that a change in the school's administration in 2007 had led to a witch hunt against her.
Tadic claimed that "had the teacher been Christian, no one would have accused her of brainwashing." Furthermore, she asked whether Pederzoli is in fact being blamed for being Jewish.
Also on Tuesday, Tadic filed for an injunction over the teacher's suspension. According to AFP, the court has 15 days to rule on the matter.

Wiesel calls on France to stop Roma deportations

Jewish Chronicle
By Jennifer Lipman, August 31, 2010

Elie Wiesel has condemned the French government's decision to expel Roma immigrants but cautioned that a comparison with the Nazi round-ups was not appropriate.
The Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor described the repatriation of Roma people from France to Romania and Bulgaria as unacceptable.


As a former refugee, Mr Wiesel expressed his solidarity with the Roma and called on French president Nicolas Sarkozy to stop the crackdown. But he also said: "It is necessary to be careful with the language."These Roma are sent to Romania, to Hungary, not to Auschwitz. He added: "One doesn't have the right to trivialise events, memories and souvenirs."
Robert Le Gall, Archbishop of Toulouse, had likened the situation to the expulsion of Jews from occupied France during the Holocaust.
Around 700 Roma, also known as gypsies or Romany, are expected to be deported from France. Mr Sarkozy has defended the plan as necessary to decrease crime levels, but it has been met by criticism in France and around the world.
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, the founder of humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières, is one of a number of senior French politicians who have publicly questioned the decision.
Mr Kouchner, whose father was Jewish, said he had considered resigning. He said: "I am not happy with what has happened. I have been working with the Roma for 25 years."
More than 220,000 Roma are believed to have been murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
For more on this see: Sarkozy's crackdown on Roma camps adds fuel to criticism at home and abroad

Bruno Chaouat to speak on Anti-Semitism, Israel, and Ideological Change in France

HAVE FRENCH JEWS TURNED RIGHT?
Anti-Semitism, Israel, and Ideological Change in France

Since 9/11 and the second intifada, the Left has often charged Jews with becoming increasingly right-wing. This charge is based on the support of Jews for Israel and the United States, both deemed reactionary countries by many on the Left in France and Europe. Bruno Chaouat will analyze whether French Jews have turned to the Right by examining debates among those on the Left and by exploring the reactions of the French Jewish community to recent waves of anti-Semitic violence in relation to the Middle East conflict.


Bruno Chaouat is associate professor of French and Jewish studies and director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. His publications include a book on Chateaubriand and autobiography, many articles on 19th-century French literature, edited volumes on shame and terror, and essays on anti-Semitism and Holocaust testimony in France. He is now completing a book project titled "Jewish Envy: France After Anti-Semitism."
February 10, 2011 7:30 p.m., Temple of Aaron Synagogue, 616 S. Mississippi River Boulevard. St. Paul 651-698-8874
For more information please contact Center for Jewish Studies, e-mail: jwst@umn.edu
or phone: 612-624-4914.
Co-sponsors: U of M Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Department of French & Italian; U of M Hillel; Temple of Aaron; St. Paul Jewish Community Center; United Jewish Fund and Council